A Pete Rose remembrance, from four years or so covering him in Philadelphia. The night Rose broke Stan Musial’s NL hits record in 1981, I was jammed into a basement room at Veterans Stadium with perhaps 150 other reporters. Pete was almost as adept handling a crowd like that as he was with a bat. The questioning started, but was soon stopped, as we awaited a very public congratulatory call from President Reagan. In a room filled with reporters on deadline, we waited ... and waited .. and waited for the president. Finally, Rose remarked to the crowd, "Glad there aren’t any missiles coming in." It brought the house down. And I don’t remember anything Reagan said.
Words of wisdom: "Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm." -- Winston Churchill
Monumental Sports hopes United Airlines is first of possibly 10 at 'founding partner' level
United Airlines already has one of the top sports sponsorship portfolios in its category. Now, it's gilding the lily with a comprehensive Monumental Sports & Entertainment sponsorship that includes rights and marketing inventory across the Capitals, Wizards, WNBA Mystics and the Monumental Sports Network RSN.
United is also the first to sign on as a “founding partner" for the 27-year-old Capital One Arena, which is mounting an $800 million public/private refurbishment (dubbed a “transformation").
The deal makes United, which flies out of every D.C. and Baltimore airport and claims 8,000 regional employees, MSE’s global airline sponsor. It includes team-controlled media, a branded section within a new dedicated premium hospitality area, RSN ad inventory and community outreach programs.
“As the largest airline in D.C., we’re looking for partnerships that reflect our commitment to the region," said Jen Entenman, head of global sponsorships at United, which also sponsors the Commanders.
As for the rationale behind the deal? It surely isn’t awareness. “We’re looking to solidify some of our brand-health metrics like consideration, purchase intent, and, ultimately, purchase pull-through," Entenman said. "Whenever we can attribute fan and residents’ awareness to improved consideration of United and flying with us, it's a solid direction."
Etihad Airways held MSE’s airline category rights from 2015 until this summer.
Over the next three years, the Capital One Arena will increase in size from 1 million to 1.2 million square feet. MSE is looking to add seven to 10 founding sponsors as it seeks to underwrite its modernization.
It's worth noting United’s Super Bowl ad earlier this year as an indicator that the airline category has fully recovered from its pandemic grounding. This is yet another sign.
“We saw around a 20% increase in visitors to D.C. last year, so I’d say travel overall looks healthy again,” said Jim Van Stone, MSE’s president of business operations. “With 190 embassies, we’ve always been a global travel hub. We don't have the Hollywood seats with actors and actresses, but the people in our VIP seats generally have much bigger budgets."
Judge, Ohtani featured in new MLB creative around postseason
I'm certain more than a few within MLB’s Midtown Manhattan HQ are dreaming about a World Series matching the game’s top stars, Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge, against one another. The fact that they represent the top two U.S. media markets would make a Dodgers-Yankees Fall Classic -- the first since 1981 -- even more consequential.
Still, as the postseason dawns, MLB Deputy Commissioner/Business and Media Noah Garden was stressing the enviable geographic spread of this year’s playoff field. "We’ve got rabid fan bases that haven't been involved for some time, like Kansas City and Detroit, along with some of the biggest markets, with a lot of good young players,” said Garden, who is starting his playoff travels in San Diego tonight for the Padres-Braves NL Wild Card game. “So, we’ve got great story lines regardless."
Nonetheless, new Wieden & Kennedy-created spots for the MLB postseason that are breaking this week include one featuring Judge and Ohtani, and others supporting each postseason round, terming it the “Post-Season Season."
Looking to drum up additional fanfare in Tokyo for native son Ohtani, MLB has underwritten more than 100 pieces of out-of-home advertising there.
Sporting K.C. hires Team Playmaker to assist with sponsorship deals in runup to 2026 World Cup
Team Playmaker has won an agency shootout to become the first third-party sales agency for Sporting K.C. After first drafting an overall commercial strategy for the MLS club, Team Playmaker before the end of 2024 will assist in selling top-tier marketing inventory for Sporting K.C., including uniform branding opportunities and the team’s home stadium naming rights, which have been with K.C.-based Children’s Mercy Hospital since 2015.
Kansas City, SBJ's No. 13 market among Best Sports Business Cities/Event Hosting , is hosting six FIFA World Cup matches during the 2026 tournament. It's an opportunity that Team Playmaker Managing Partner Matt Grandis, a 2018 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree in the same class as Sporting K.C. President & CEO Jake Reid called "considerable between now and then."
SKC CRO Gregg Allen was asked why the team was retaining an outside sales agency for the first time. “We wanted to bridge the gap to national and international partners as we approach a World Cup here and put Kansas City in front of the world," he said, noting K.C. as a top-four domestic market for youth soccer participation. “[Team Playmaker] took a very tailored approach with us. ... This is too big a runway to not partner with the best and make the most out of what this market is going to experience over the next few years."
Ross Meltzer and Grandis, formerly the top U.S. sales execs at CSM, formed Team Playmaker as an agency under the aegis of Winners Alliance back in June . The agency has capabilities in third-party sales for brands, media and properties, as well as research/analytics, strategy/ideation, commercial strategy and asset creation. Other areas of expertise include agency sponsorships, athlete marketing, content, naming rights, jersey-patch sales, events and activation. Other clients for Team Playmaker include the Professional Tennis Players Association, the Federation of International Cricketers’ Association and Michael Johnson’s forthcoming track and field venture.
Speed reads
- With Fanatics taking over from Adidas as the NHL’s on-ice uniform provider under a 10-year deal, the aim for 2024-25 is largely to do no harm, writes SBJ's Alex Silverman. Early indications suggest that despite public concern stemming from the MLB uniform debacle earlier this year (blame for which has been attributed to Nike), quality control won’t be an issue under Fanatics.
- A number of NBA jersey patch deals have come down as the season nears, including: Trail Blazers-Brightside Windows; Pelicans-NewAge Products; Pistons-StockX; and Nets-GetYourGuide.
- TGL team Boston Common Golf landed another sponsor and is bringing on Rhode Island-based insurance company FM as its first and only principal partner, reports SBJ's Josh Carpenter.
- Chiefs CMO Lara Krug outlined the team's global branding plan during last week's SBJ Game Changers event.